By Leela Ramdeen, Chair of the Catholic Commission for Social Justice
Today is Palm Sunday or Passion Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week, “the most solemn and intense period of worship in the Christian faith” (Women for Faith and Family Life).
Today Christians celebrate Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem, on a donkey. In fact, he rode on a colt, the foal of a donkey. What a lesson in humility! I hope you appreciate the significance of this for a society/world in which for people with status or for royalty, pomp and splendour are the order of the day. Jesus, the King of the Jews, chose to ride on a donkey.
The massive crowd laid their garments and leaves, including palm leaves, on the ground in front of Him, shouting: “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! (Psalm 118:26) Hosanna in the highest!”
As the writer Wayne Jackson says: “Spreading garments before a dignitary was a symbol of submission (see 2 Kings. 9:13). Palm branches were employed also as token of victory (Suetonius, Caligula, 32)…The Jewish disciples doubtless were expressing the hope that Jesus would be the one to lead them to victory over their oppressor (Rome).”
Jackson reminds us that in the Gospels of both Matthew and John, we read, “this incident was the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy. The former cites Zechariah 9:9 specifically; the latter alludes to it more generally.”
The victory was yet to come, when Jesus laid down His life for the entire world on Good Friday and resurrects from the dead on Easter Sunday – within a week from today. The joy reflected in the cries of “Hosanna” is tinged with sadness because we know that we are now beginning our pilgrimage with Jesus on his way to Calvary.
On Saturday I met a friend in Trincity Mall. She wanted to buy a piece of artwork depicting the Last Supper – with raised figures made out of copper – just like the one I have in my office at Archbishop’s House. When I returned to work with the CCSJ after Fr Moses died, my Hindu father bought this piece of artwork for my office. We respect each other’s religion. This gift reminds me of the gift that Jesus gave the world because of His love for us. He died for us.
What a tremendous personal cost of love. The gift reminds me also of the reason why I am involved in promoting social justice. Jesus came so that we may have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10). Yet, for many in our society and in our world, this is not a reality.
The “life” that He wishes for us is based on the pillars of Peace that Pope John XXIII referred to in his encyclical “Peace on Earth” (1963) – truth, justice, love and freedom. Pope John Paul II referred to these pillars in his Peace Message in 2003. Inter alia, he said: “Truth will build peace if every individual sincerely acknowledges not only his rights, but also his own duties toward others.”
“Justice will build peace if in practice everyone respects the rights of others and actually fulfils his duties toward them. Love will build peace if people feel the needs of others as their own and share what they have with others, especially the values of mind and spirit that they possess. Freedom will build peace and make it thrive if, in the choice of the means to that end, people act according to reason and assume responsibility for their own actions.”
He says that peace lies “in the defense and promotion of basic human rights, which every human being enjoys, not as a benefit given by a different social class or conceded by the state, but simply because of our humanity… peace and progress could only be achieved by respecting the universal moral law written on the human heart.”
As we prepare ourselves for rebirth, freedom, new life, and forgiveness — Easter, let us commit ourselves to be true witnesses to Christ; to follow in His footsteps as His disciples, by demonstrating that we are taking action to build His Kingdom of truth, justice, love and freedom. Only then will peace become a reality.
Send feedback to: ccsjfeedback@gmail.com. To purchase: The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, Take a Bite social justice programme on DVD, and the Responses to 101 Questions on Catholic Social Teaching, contact CCSJ at 622-2691 or 290-1635.
